Paul McCartney Writing Music for Stage Adaptation of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’
Paul McCartney is still finding creative firsts to pursue in his legendary career.
Sir Paul will be writing the music and lyrics for the new musical stage adaption of It’s a Wonderful Life. Tony Award winner Lee Hall will also be contributing to the lyrics and is writing the book for the production. Bill Kenwright will be the show’s producer.
In a statement on the project, McCartney said, “Like many of these things this all started with an email. Bill had asked if it was something I might be up for. Writing a musical is not something that had ever really appealed to me but Bill and I met up with Lee Hall and had a chat and I found myself thinking this could be interesting and fun. ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ is a universal story we can all relate to.”
Kenwright recalled when McCartney submitted the first piece of music for the production, “It was a Friday night and I was in the office. I suppose you could say it hadn’t been the best of weeks. No real progress on multitudinous film and theatre projects – and Everton had lost the previous Saturday. Out of the blue I got an email from Paul asking my thoughts on his first stab at an opening song. He wasn’t sure – but wanted to know what Lee and I thought of it? I played the demo. Lee and I were unanimous. Our hero was a musical theatre writer!”
Kenwright added, “Working with Paul on “It’s a Wonderful Life” is a dream realised. To be honest I was hooked on first hearing him say “one/two/three/four” on the demo of the opening number! But since then it’s been an extraordinary journey – on every song I experience Paul’s unique gift of melody and composition. It’s musical theatre – but it’s always McCartney.”
Hall concured and added, “It’s A Wonderful Life is my favourite film. It has absolutely everything comedy, pathos and a rare humanity which has touched generation after generation. Yet it just couldn’t be more relevant. To give it a life on the stage is an immense privilege in itself but to do with Paul McCartney is off the scale. Paul’s wit, emotional honesty and melodic brilliance brings a whole new depth and breadth to the classic tale. I feel as if an angel must be looking after me.”
A premiere date and theater location have yet to be announced, but when that information becomes public, expect that to be one of the hottest tickets around.
